


The Sixth Child

by Quiet_Shadow



Series: Summer Days Prompts [25]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Age Swap, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Hogwarts Express, Hogwarts First Year
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-25
Updated: 2018-07-25
Packaged: 2019-06-16 04:36:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15429156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quiet_Shadow/pseuds/Quiet_Shadow
Summary: AU.Harry meets a different red-headed boy on the Hogwarts Express...





	The Sixth Child

**Author's Note:**

> Because I wanted to toy around with the idea of mixing up the Weasleys ages; it's fun to imagine just how different things could be for everyone if you just changed that ^^

“I heard you went to live with Muggles,” the redheaded boy sitting across Harry said. He was short and a bit stocky, with big hands and feet and so many freckles he looked like he had worked a tan. “What are they like?”

Harry hesitated for a second before shrugging. What harm was there in sharing? Besides, the other boy was friendly – all of his family had been as well, from the youngest, glass-wearing boy who had noticed he was looking at them and marched him to his mother so Harry could see how to get on the platform, to the well-meaning mother who accompanied him, to the twins who had helped him load his trunk on the train and to the thin, handsome boy who had pointed him toward a free compartment before wishing him a good journey.

Harry had never met anyone like that before. “Horrible – well, not all of them. My aunt, uncle and cousin are, though.”

“Oh. That’s too bad,” the other boy’s shoulders slumped. “I’m sorry. I got a couple of horrible relatives too, but thankfully we don’t have to see them often. Aunt Muriel refuses to set a foot in our home again since Fred and George made a dungbomb explode in her handbag.” He looked at Harry with a slight frown. “Damn. I don’t fancy ever telling my Dad Muggles can be rotten too; he likes them, you know – always trying to learn more about Muggle things. He brought them home for studying in the old shack. Drive Mom crazy all the time.”

Harry gave the other boy an envious look. What would it have been like, growing up among wizards, always using magic and not knowing what a TV or a car or a telephone was like because you had spells and flying broomsticks and whatever? And to have parents… “Wish I had four wizard brothers too,” he said instead after recounting how many redhead there had been on the platform before the Hogwarts Express left.

“Actually, it’s five brothers and a sister,” the other boy corrected him cheerfully. “I’m the sixth in the family to go to Hogwarts.” He leaned in his seat and hummed thoughtfully. “Come to think, you could say I have a lot to live up to. Ron and Ginny already left – Ron was a Prefect and Ginny was Captain of the Quidditch team. Now Ron is making a career as a Naming Seer…”

“What’s that?” Harry couldn’t help but ask, blushing as he reminded himself it wasn’t polite to cut other people when they were speaking – something Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon had pretty much drilled into him and nevermind the fact Dudley did it all the time.

Thankfully, the other boy didn’t seem bothered; he just smiled. Perhaps he was used to it, with so many siblings. “It’s a job for wizards and witches who can see the future. Ron has a knack for Divination, even if Ginny likes to argue he’s more good at guessing and hinting than at really seeing the future. Anyway, a Naming Seer is tasked by parents who just had a baby to predict the newborn’s future and pick a name for them based on what they see.”

“Wow,” Harry blinked. “That sounds awesome.”

The other boy shrugged. “It kinda is, I guess. But not many people use Naming Seer anymore – they worry too much about the potential future afterward, so it’s a job which is becoming very rare. Ron does professional chess tournaments on the side because he has a lot of free time. Mom is rather unhappy with him – she wanted him to take a job at the Ministry of Magic, like Dad. But that’s nothing compared to her rants about Ginny choosing to go into professional Quidditch. She got recruited as a reserve player for the Holyhead Harpies,” he said with a puffed chest, sounding proud.

Harry had only the faintest understanding of Quidditch, but making it into professional sports must have been as hard and demanding in the wizarding world as it was among the Muggles, so he made appropriate noises of wonder and congratulations. “And your other brothers?”

The boy shrugged. “Well, Fred and George mess around a lot but they still get really good marks and everyone think they’re really funny – even if they weren’t chosen as Prefects, which annoys Mom a lot. Bill is really laid back and really cool and handsome and he’s one of the best students in his year, too – everyone go see Bill if they have a problem. Even the older students do.” He smiled. “He’s great like that, my brother.”

“And… Percy?” Harry asked, fumbling to remember the name of the youngest boy, the one who had stayed on the platform as the train left.

“Percy? He’ll be coming to Hogwarts next yet. He’s Momma’s boy,” the redhead shook his head, “and I hope going to Hogwarts won’t put too much pressure on his shoulders. I mean,” he added at Harry’s blank look, “it’s not easy being the two youngest among a big family. Everyone tends to expect you to do as well as your older siblings and even if you do, well the others already did it so it’s nothing exceptional, isn’t it? That puts a lot of pressure on your shoulders, and I know it worry Perce.”

“And not you?”

“Naw,” the boy shrugged. “What must happen will happen, after all. And if people don’t notice me, I don’t mind. But I wish we’d have been able to afford a new wand for me,” he sighed. “We’re on a tight budget, so…”

From there, the discussion shifted. Harry and his new friend chatted easily, exchanging on various subjects. The redhead never asked to see the scar on Harry’s forehead and sidestepped the subject of Voldemort (“Well, yes, I’d like to hear more, but I don’t think it’s a discussion to have on the first day, eh?”). Around half past ten, a smiling, dimpled woman passed by their compartment pushing a trolley and Harry bought as much sweets as he could to share and got introduced to the wonders of Bertie Bott’s Every-Flavour Beans and the Chocolate Frogs cards.

A bushy haired girl accompanied by a timid looking boy dropped by to ask if they had seen a toad, prompting Harry’s new friend to point her toward the Prefects car. “They may help you to search or at least be able to pass the word around.”

All in one, they were having a pleasant travel… at least until another boy dropped by their compartment.

“Is it true?” the pale blonde boy Harry had met on Diagon Alley said. “They’re saying all down the train that Harry Potter’s in this compartment. So it’s you, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” said Harry. He glanced at his friend, then at the two thickset boys on either side of the new arrivant. They did look somewhat mean and the way they positioned themselves strongly reminded Harry of bodyguards. He tensed, not knowing why.

“Oh, this is Crabbe and this is Goyle,” the pale boy added after noticing where Harry was looking. “And my name is Malfoy, Draco Malfoy.”

“Wow, really? That’s so cool!” the redhead exclaimed loudly, making everyone look at him in surprise. He shrugged defensively. “What? It’s mean ‘dragon’ in latin, right? I like dragons! So I think it’s definitely a cool name; you’re so lucky,” he sighed wistfully as he looked at Draco Malfoy in the eyes.

“I, uh, thank you?” Draco stammered, looking nonplussed. He seemed to take in the redhead used school robes and the red hair and the mass of freckles and hesitating. “… You’re one of the Weasleys children, right?”

“Yep,” the other boy answered with a grin. “I’m Charlie Weasley. Nice to meet you, Draco.”

Harry didn’t think Draco was as pleased, but the blonde boy seemed to be put out – perhaps he had expected hostility or mockery about his name? But Charlie was being perfectly honest, it showed in his smile and eyes and voice and insulting someone who had just complimented you and said you had to have the coolest name ever would have been petty as hell.

Perhaps because he was too off balance, Malfoy left quickly, mumbling something about talking later at Hogwarts.

Harry leaned back in his seat as the door closed and wondered briefly just how things would have turned, had Charlie Weasley not been the Weasley brother who had the same age as him…


End file.
